Friday open thread

This is my first open thread, so instead of a quote, I thought I’d put out a question instead.

Yesterday I happened to start a conversation with an Obama supporter, Harvard Law School grad and law professor in Albany. He talked about how the tone of the Clinton campaign, from both Bill and Hillary, has alienated black America in irreparable ways.

HRC’s questioning of Obama’s “experience”, as well as the former president calling his campaign a “fairytale” and saying Obama put a “hit job” on him – the law professor said those were loaded terms in the black community, and that the Clintons, who were trained in politics in the South, “know better.”

If you want to read up on this, here’s an article from today’s Washington Post.

My conversation with him, plus the Siena poll that found voters divided over the state of race relations in New York State, got me thinking:

1. What does it say about the state of America that we have a woman and a biracial black candidate as the top contenders for the Democratic spot? Are we moving forward?

2. Do you think the back and forth between the Obama/ Clinton campaigns helps or hurts the country’s discourse on race?